


February 15th; 2:23 am

by BooksandKpop



Series: Soft Fics 9: Every SF9 Pairing (OT2) [15]
Category: SF9 (Band)
Genre: 24 hour convenience store, Crack, Drabble, M/M, and Youngbin as the well meaning roommate, ft Inseong as the tired employee, i think, inspired by tweets i have seen but can't find
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 12:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16158905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BooksandKpop/pseuds/BooksandKpop
Summary: All Taeyang wanted was to buy some ice-cream.





	February 15th; 2:23 am

Ok so maybe crying into a pint of double chocolate brownie ice-cream wasn't the best way to deal with a breakup on Valentine's day. But Yoo Taeyang was nothing if not cliché and dramatic. Unfortunately for him and his plans of schoolgirl-esque heartbreak, there was exactly zero (0) frozen dairy products in his miserable excuse of a student freezer. The downsides of being a struggling university student who lived with a health-freak dance major.

However, he was in desperate need of drowning his overexaggerated sorrows into a large amount of sugar infused lactose treats, and so that meant one thing. A trip across town to the 24-hour convenience store. Now usually, Taeyang would never do something as rash as pulling on his oldest oversized hoodie and rattiest basketball shorts to trudge twenty minutes through dimly lit streets in search of ice-cream. But he was not in a rational state of mind, nor was he in any mood to be swayed by the responsible voice in his head that sounded a lot like his older roommate. So, with the pain of being dumped by a guy (who really wasn't that good for him anyway) after waiting an hour and a half for him to show up for their supposed romantic dinner date burning in his chest, he set off on his mission.

Thirty minutes and several almost abortions of his plan later, Taeyang arrived in the dodgy parking lot of the only store still open after two am on a Thursday in February. The glaring fluorescent lights inside probably did nothing to hide his cheeks that were flushed from the cold and his eyes which were probably puffy from exhaustion and unnecessary crying, but he was beyond the point of caring. All he wanted right now was to find the tub of calorific goodness he was craving and get home where he could resume his pity party in peace. Like most things in his life, however, it wasn't always that simple.

He was staring into the freezer for a good ten minutes and still couldn't see the container he wanted. Sure there was cookie dough and salted caramel and all sorts of other flavours, but Taeyang was stubborn and needed the double chocolate brownie one. For no other reason than he refused to have come all this way to compromise and prove his ex right in that he was too willing to give way when things were against him. Deciding that he wasn't going to get anywhere by freezing himself half to death standing in the cold foods aisle, he went to find an employee.

As it was, there was exactly one (1) person on duty and he looked about as tired as Taeyang felt. Not even bothering to read their nametag he demanded in his most assertive tone, which came out only barely louder than his usual speaking voice, that he be shown where the ice-cream he wanted was being kept. After some infuriatingly drawn-out clicks on the computer screen in front of him, the employee informed him there should be one carton left in the freezer. Feeling defeated but refusing to give up, Taeyang thanked him in his own customer service voice before marching back to the ice-cream freezer.

Another five minutes of searching yielded numb hands and no double chocolate brownie. It was almost two thirty in the morning, he had a lecture at ten and Taeyang was  _this_ close to breaking down in tears in the middle of the store. But before his brain could commit to the embarrassing wave of unsolicited emotion, a hand tapped his shoulder and made him spin around on the spot. 

A very handsome face paired with a mop of unruly curls was what he was met with. The man in question was only slightly shorter than Taeyang, and he had a mischevious glint in his eyes. Stepping back slightly, he raised an eyebrow at this new person as a way of questioning their motives. They whipped their head around comically, looking up and down the aisle as if they were searching for someone, before leaning back into Taeyang's personal space and whispering to him.

"My crazy ex-girlfriend is here and if she sees me alone I'm scared she might try to make a scene. Will you pretend to be my boyfriend for a little while just in case we run into her?" His voice was strangely soothing, although Taeyang could tell that he wasn't used to speaking at such a low volume. Despite all his better judgement, Taeyang assented and allowed the stranger to hold his hand and walk with him around the store.

His name was Dawon ("really?" "no, I don't just give my real name out to randomers in convenience stores") and he was two years older than Taeyang. They walked through the aisles together and just talked about everything as Dawon picked up an increasingly random selection of items. It was only as they approached the check-out where the same employee still sat, zombified, that Taeyang realised something important. In the twenty minutes the pair had wandered around the store they hadn't met a single soul. 

Dawon laughed, high-pitched like a dolphin when Taeyang blearily pointed out his observation. "I know. But you looked sad just staring into the ice-cream freezer and I figured you could use some company. I do have a crazy ex-girlfriend though. She's the reason I'm in a 24-hour convenience store on Valentine's night." That, of course, reminded him of the reason he had trekked all the way out here in the first place. And once again, Dawon provided the answer. Because there, moving its way across the conveyer belt after being removed from the shopping basket, was a singular tub of double chocolate brownie ice-cream.

When he exclaimed in a croaky voice that Dawon was his ice-cream thief, the elder proceeded to giggle like a child. The poor employee scanning the items looked like he would rather be anywhere else. But Taeyang wasn't paying him any attention as he watched the singular reason he had walked all the way out here on a bitterly cold February night get added to the list of items going into Dawon's shopping bags. Before he could say anything else, all the groceries had been paid for and there was a devilishly bright smile on his face.

The shorter male intertwined his fingers with Taeyang's once again like they had been as they walked through the store, and pulled him away from the till and out into the cold night. A sharp breeze slapped his face and seemed to shake him from hazy stupour he had been in before. He tried to pull his hand from Dawon's grip, but the elder held tight and just pulled him closer. Away from the harsh lighting inside, Taeyang noticed that he was actually very handsome. Warm almond-shaped eyes, a gently sloping nose and plush lips were all framed by a strong jaw and highlighted by the boyish mop of curls on the top of his head. 

There was a beat of silence before Dawon cocked his head to one side resembling a confused puppy and it made Taeyang smile. As soon as he did, Dawon's face lit up like a firework and he looked so excited for seemingly no reason. But of course, he was given a reason. "You smiled! That means you're not as sad as you were when I met you inside which means that I have accomplished my mission." Seeing the elder be so happy over something so small made Taeyang realise how stupid his whole pity party really was. The guy he was seeing never even officially accepted the label of his boyfriend, they were an awful match and he was so much better off without him. That revelation must have brought an interesting expression to his face as Dawon looked at him preciously, before pulling a stupid face that caused Taeyang to giggle out loud.

In the end, Taeyang invited Dawon to come back and crash on his couch since he actually was being hounded by a crazy girl and couldn't return to his own apartment. Also because the elder had a car which meant that he didn't have to walk the half an hour journey home with his legs felt like thousands of icy needles were piercing his skin and eyes so heavy he might have fallen asleep on the way back. As promised, he made himself comfortable on Taeyang's couch with a pillow and flimsy throw blanket and bid Taeyang goodnight when he retired to his own room. He was in a deep, peaceful sleep by the time his clock turned three.

Waking up the following morning was not fun. His mouth felt like sand and his eyes refused to open fully. There was also the beginnings of a headache and an itch in his throat that signalled he was getting a cold. So instead of being a responsible student and getting up for his lecture anyway, he sent what he hoped was a comprehensive text to his friend that he wasn't going to make it in and rolled over to go back to sleep. It was only when he finally woke up at twenty past eleven feeling infinitely more refreshed that all the events of last night (this morning?) came crashing back to his memory.

Leaping out of his bed like it was on fire, Taeyang dashed into the living room only to find it empty. The blanket and pillow that Dawon had been using were left in a neatly folded pile on the couch, but apart from that, there was no sign of the bright stranger ever being there. Until of course, Taeyang went to the fridge to get milk for his cereal and found a note stuck on the freezer door.

**"To the sunshine I met at night. I hope that our brief encounter helped you shine a little brighter even in the face of a bad day."**

Inside the freezer, he found the carton of double chocolate brownie he had journeyed to the convenience store to get. It wasn't until later that evening as he planned to drown his new boy sorrows in the frozen treat that he discovered the tub had in fact been opened. And sitting on top of the chocolate health hazard was another note similar to the one he had found earlier.

**"Next time you're in the arts building picking Yougbin up from dance rehearsals, call into the radio room and ask for Sanghyuk."**

 

 


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